Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a panned confectionery product having a chocolate piece that is coated with a color adherent coating solution and an edible colorant. More particularly, in the present invention, the color adherent coating solution is applied on a surface of the chocolate piece, and the edible colorant is applied to adhere to the color adherent coating solution.
Description of the Related Art
Applying a sugar shell coating around a chocolate center is well known in the art. The sugar shell coating provides a colored surface over the chocolate center, forming a colorful product with a crunchy texture.
However, a crunchy texture is not always desirable. Moreover, the process for creating a sugar shell is very complicated and rather time consuming. A chocolate panned confectionery product having a colored surface that is not a sugar shell would provide an alternative product design that is aesthetically pleasing and that need not be crunchy.
Another method of imparting color to chocolate is by taking white chocolate and adding a colorant to the white chocolate. However, this has its drawbacks, since the colored chocolate will not meet the Code of Federal Regulations Standard of Identity for chocolate in the U.S. and therefore cannot be labeled as chocolate.
The present inventor, while attempting to find new ways of completely coloring the outside surface of chocolate pieces, discovered that the surface of chocolate pieces could be colored in a random non-continuous adhesive pattern by employing the methods described below.